Since coming into recovery I’ve been presented with quite a few life challenges, most of which I would have previously ran and hid from. My fears kept me in my addiction and in turn I was slowly and painfully taking my life.

Fortunately, before it succeeded I found ODAAT and eleven months later I’m getting my life back. Today I live purely as the programme suggests, “One day at a time”, and believe that with this new mindset, my support network and my new acquired life skills, I am a real person once again.

"Having been in rehabs where you're in the same staffed building 24/7 didn't challenge me to maintain my own recovery."

"I was taken to the offices of Hope Worldwide where I met a man who told me that if I was willing, they may be able to help me. "You need never drink again, but there's work to be done....." Those words stuck with me as it was something I never deemed possible."

January 2008, 4.15 a.m. in an alleyway behind the Royal Free Hospital. I was lying behind waste bins; wet, dark and as far as I was concerned....at the end of the line. I couldn't see two feet in front of me because of the weather and the fact that I was once again, drunk. It had become a recurring scenario to which I had become adjusted.

I was drifting in and out of consciousness, not really caring or aware of what was going on around me. Somehow, two nurses from the hospital who were on their way to work had spotted me from the end of the alleyway. I have been back to that alleyway today.... and I still can't see how they saw me.....